The Palgrave Handbook of Producers Laura MacDonald • William A. Everett Editors The Palgrave Handbook of Musical Theatre Producers Editors Laura MacDonald William A. Everett School of Media and Performing Arts Conservatory of Music and Dance University of Portsmouth University of Missouri Portsmouth, United Kingdom Kansas City, Missouri, USA

ISBN 978-1-137-44029-7 ISBN 978-1-137-43308-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-43308-4

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016963272

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprint- ing, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, com- puter software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Cover illustration: Photo by Kenn Duncan © Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Nature America Inc. The registered company address is: 1 New York Plaza, New York, NY 10004, U.S.A. Acknowledgements

The genesis of this volume began with a roundtable session, ‘“The Most Fabulous Producers”: A Re-evaluation of Producers’ Innovations and Achievements in American Theatre’, which took place at the annual meeting of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) on 2 August 2012, in Washington, DC. As the conveners of the roundtable, we remain grateful to the participants for their involvement and especially for the suggestion and sub- sequent encouragement that they and numerous attendees gave us to develop the project further. We didn’t even leave the conference before talking with Robyn Curtis, former associate editor at Palgrave Macmillan, about co-editing a collection of essays on the topic of musical theatre producers. Her immediate reaction that this was something worth pursuing was certainly inspirational, and we are deeply indebted to her for suggesting the idea of a handbook. We would like to thank Robyn’s successor, Jen McCall, for her continued support as we were bringing the volume and its contents into focus. At Palgrave Macmillan, we must also acknowledge Felicity Plester, publisher and global head of film, culture and media studies; April James, editorial assis- tant; and Joanna North, copyeditor for their continued support, expert advice, and unwavering encouragement for this project. We are grateful to Jeremy Megraw, Photograph Librarian in the Billy Rose Theatre Division at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts for his help in locating our cover image. In addition to our colleagues at the University of Portsmouth and the University of Missouri–Kansas City, we would like to thank our families and friends for their continued buttressing as this project reached completion. We would be remiss to not offer our gratitude to our students, who inspire us and provide tremendous opportunities for our own learning. Finally, this book simply would not exist without the fine work by its many contributors. Thank you for responding to our queries and suggestions and for making the compilation and editing of this volume such a delight. Laura MacDonald and William A. Everett, February 2016

v Contents

Overture 1

1 A Ballyhoo for Producers 3 Laura MacDonald, William A. Everett

2 Actors Act. Directors Direct. Producers … Produce? Mel Brooks’s The Producers and the Creation of an Archetype 11 Kathryn Edney

Act 1. To the 1940s 19

3 Tony Pastor: The Father of Vaudeville 21 Gillian M. Rodger

4 Adolf Philipp and the German American Musical Comedy 29 John Koegel

5 George Edwardes: The Guv’nor of Late Victorian Musical Theatre 39 William A. Everett

6 Charles Frohman: King of the Star-Makers 47 Brian D. Valencia

vii viii CONTENTS

7 Aggressive, Beleaguered, Commercial, Defiant: Marc Klaw and Abraham Erlanger 59 Marlis Schweitzer

8 Did the Shuberts Save Broadway? The Corporate Producers 69 Anthony Vickery

9 Sam Harris: A Producing Patron of Innovation 83 Alisa Roost

10 Florenz Ziegfeld Jr.’s ‘Simple Idea’: Girls and Music in Tastefully Extravagant Settings 95 Todd Decker

11 Feather-Footed Impresario: The Scandals of George White 107 Maya Cantu

12 Alexander A. Aarons and Vinton Freedley: The Smart Sophisticates 119 Jennifer Ashley Tepper, William A. Everett

13 Coherency: Lew Fields, the Performer-Producer and Experimenter in Integration 127 Dominic Symonds

14 Firm Foundations: James Cassius Williamson and ‘The Firm’ 137 Frank Van Straten

15 Japanese Women’s Popular Musicals: The Takarazuka Revue 145 Nobuko Anan

Act 2. From the 1940s through the 1970s 151

16 Refining the Tastes of Broadway Audiences: The and American Musical Theatre 153 Claudia Wilsch Case

17 More than a Producer: ‘ Presents’ 163 Paul R. Laird CONTENTS ix

18 Rodgers and Hammerstein: The Sound of Money 173 Valerie M. Joyce

19 The Nice One: The Productions of Robert Griffith 191 Michael Schwartz

20 The Sparkplug and the Engineer: Balancing Art and Business in the Collaboration of Cy Feuer and Ernest Martin 199 Dominic McHugh

21 Roger L. Stevens: The Great Facilitator 207 Karen Patricia Heath

22 ‘He Could Get It for You Wholesale’: The Producing Genius of 217 Ryan McKinney

23 Stuart Ostrow: Experiments in Independence 231 Elissa Harbert

24 Hal Prince: Artistry in Producing 239 Paul R. Laird

25 Korean Musical Theatre’s Past: Yegrin and the Politics of 1960s Musical Theatre 253 Ji Hyon (Kayla) Yuh

26 Joseph Papp and the Public Theater 261 Elizabeth L. Wollman

27 Giora Godik: The ‘Showporter’ Turned Artistic Producer 267 Shiraz Biggie

28 The West End (and Broadway) Head East: Tōhō International and Gekidan Shiki 277 Kevin J. Wetmore Jr. x CONTENTS

Act 3. Since the 1970s 289

29 : One Singular Sensation, Now and Forever 291 Mark E. Swartz

30 Emanuel Azenberg’s Life in Theatre: ‘Happiness Is Equilibrium. Shift Your Weight’ 303 Sarah Taylor Ellis

31 Cameron Mackintosh: Modern Global Impresario 311 Jessica Sternfeld

32 Laying Down the RUG: , the Really Useful Group, and Musical Theatre in a Global Economy 325 Kyle A. Thomas

33 ‘My American Dream’: Dreaming of Broadway and the West End in the Philippines 333 Sir Anril Pineda Tiatco

34 Trading Globally in Austrian History: Vereinigte Bühnen Wien 343 Laura MacDonald

35 From Amsterdam With Love: Stage Entertainment’s Global Success 351 Sanne Thierens

36 West Side Story: The Journey to